Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o predicts big things for Little Monsters
She’s won an Oscar and starred in some of the biggest Hollywood hits over the past decade but it was this script from an Aussie that was “weirdest and funniest” she had ever read. So she headed Down Under.
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Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o describes Little Monsters as “the little Aussie movie that can and will”.
Having spent a few months based in Sydney shooting the film at the back end of 2017, the Abe Forsythe-directed zombie comedy horror flick finally hits cinemas this week.
“The truth is it was singularly the weirdest and funniest script that I have read, really just ever,” Nyong’o told Insider, chatting after a long day
on set.
“I laughed out loud. Scripts can sometimes be hard to get through because they are not meant to be experienced on the page, they are meant to be experienced on the screen. So sometimes when you read them, it is very hard to do so in one sitting and to get a sense of what it is. But with this one, I could not put it down.”
A huge part of the appeal was the exuberant blend of genres, she adds.
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“I read the entire thing in one sitting and I enjoyed every step of it. It is a comedy, it has got some thriller in there, it is definitely romantic at some points and it is a musical a little bit as well. And then there’s zombies. It was just so bizarre and I wanted in.
“And then I thought, ‘my goodness, how on earth did they think of me for this, all the way over there in Australia. Who is Abe Forsythe and how did I get on his radar? All of it was so intriguing to me and then I had a conversation with him (Forsythe).”
It was that conversation with Forsythe, himself an actor known for work on the small screen in Always Greener, Fireflies and Mr Inbetween, which sealed the deal for Nyong’o, who had also watched his acclaimed 2016 film Down Under about the Cronulla riots.
“He is a risk taker,” she says. “He doesn’t shy away from difficult stories. That one (Down Under) was really illuminating, about the Cronulla riots and the xenophobia as it is experienced in Australia. I loved his way of looking at the world and seeing even that subject with a sense of humour. I like how he used comedy as a device for illuminating something deeply true and disturbing about human nature.
“And then here we have Little Monsters and he is doing that through the use of zombies and I just thought, ‘yeah, I’ll work with him thank you very much’.”
Nyong’o is speaking to Insider after wrapping her last day of shooting in a park in Sydney’s east.
A few days earlier we had crossed paths over a catering spread on set and I’d said hello as she helped herself to a potato.
“Did I take your potato?” she joked.
Securing Nyong’o in the lead role of Miss Caroline in Little Monsters was a major coup for Forsythe, who also signed American Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty And The Beast) as kids entertainer Teddy McGiggle.
Up-and-coming Australian actor Alexander England (Alien Covenant, Offspring) plays the romantic lead in washed-up musician Dave, who is accompanying his nephew on a kindergarten field trip when a zombie break-out from a nearby army base takes place.
“I’m going to miss those children so much and the creation of the piece has been really lovely,” Nyong’o says.
“It has been so freeing to be here in Sydney. The experience on set has been nothing but lovely. The crew culture here, at least as I’ve experienced it on this particular set has been so friendly, really supportive, everyone was polite and respectful and it doesn’t feel like it was put on, it felt quite genuine and everyone is just there to help.
“Abe and the producers really did put together a group of people who felt like they were in it because they loved the story too and so it has been a joy to work with everyone. And living in Sydney, yeah I’ve kept quite a low profile and I’ve really enjoyed being able to walk out in the open and enjoy the beaches and the food, my goodness, I don’t think I ate one bad meal in Australia. And everyone is so fit it seems. And has a sense of humour.”
Nyong’o, 36, won her Academy Award for acclaimed 2013 film 12 Years A Slave.
But while she is a big deal movie star thanks to roles in Black Panther, Star Wars, The Jungle Book and Us in real life she is very low key.
“I love being able to do both (big and small movies),” she explains.
“The work is the same as an actor, you have to invest in your character and use every shot to try to get closer to what it is your character wants. That doesn’t change, it doesn’t matter what size film you are working on.
“The thing about doing such a small film is that it is a lot more intimate. First of all you get to know everybody and then life is happening right there, you don’t have a huge part blocked off for the film. You really have to have a sense of patience and also perspective, we are so fortunate that we get to wake up in the morning and fight zombies all day. There are folks who are fighting real wars out there so lets keep that in mind and enjoy it while it lasts.”
Little Monsters had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it received rave reviews, and it finally opens locally on Thursday.
Nyong’o believes the film will have legs internationally.
“It appealed to me and I was half way across the world,” she said. “The Aussie-ness of it was just as interesting as anything else. It is very much an Aussie film but it is universal at the same time and it has enough weirdness and charm that I think it will resonate with way more than just an Australian audience.
“I feel the universality of it and I have confidence that others will. I feel like it is definitely a niche kind of film that might surprise us all. I think it knows itself in that sense and it is not trying to be anything that it is not, which is something that I really appreciate about Abe is that at no point is he compromising on his vision.”